Negotiations are an involved process that consists of several phases, including determining terms, defining and collaborating with stakeholders, bargaining and aligning on key deal terms, presenting deals and counteroffers, and finally reaching a mutually beneficial agreement. However, you don’t just immediately get to figuratively go home once all of this is over. You’ve still got a couple of very important jobs left on the docket. What else is left to do? Keep reading to learn more.
Putting It All Together
This is one of the most essential steps in smart business. After all, all that negotiating is for nothing if you don’t get a good contract and business partnership out of it. This should start right as discussions at the table have died down. Write down all the points you’ve discussed, agreed upon, and any issues that have been left unsettled for a later date. Go over this with the other party and review it to ensure everything’s agreed to as intended. Use this and any negotiation checklists kept, and convert them into a legal document that includes terms and conditions, applicable laws, etcetera, and sign them. You might want to consider a follow-up call or email with your stakeholders to see where they’re at, smooth things over, and overall start your work together off on the right foot.
So, you’ve come to the end of all the negotiating. You’ve worked your way through the process, wading through the legalese to establish what you (and the other party) need from business talks, finding points of agreement amongst a slew of differences, and finding ways to make the result work for everyone. That’s quite a feat, but you’ve still got a crucial step left before you can truly move forward: finalizing a contract and implementing it.
While you technically could skip this and instead opt for a verbal agreement, we highly recommend actually producing one on paper. It protects both you and the other party since it holds up in court significantly easier, minimizing any “he said, she saids.” Seeing everything in black and white also encourages everyone to honor their mutual agreement with less fuss, which is always a good thing.
Evaluating the Outcome
On top of actually forming a written contract, there’s also another point in the post-negotiation process that deserves a little attention. You should also take a while to evaluate your business and partnership talk outcome and communicate that with your negotiation team. Right off the bat, look at what you wanted to achieve and assess whether you accomplished that or not. If so, why do you think things went so well? What did you do right? Or, if not, why do you think that happened? Where did you go wrong? This is absolutely critical because negotiations are a skill you can hone.
It’s also a good idea to review how your assumptions have changed throughout the business negotiations. While we all walk in with them, they generally only hold us back from genuinely seeing where the other side is coming from, which can, in turn, cloud our judgment and impede us from reaching a fair agreement. Recognizing the validity of these can hopefully eliminate ones from cropping up in the future. And likewise, recognizing more generally how successful negotiations were, if there was anything you should’ve done differently, understanding your wins and losses, and more, all allow you to get better in future negotiations – gaining more beneficial partnerships in the weeks, months, and years to come.
About Intellext™
Intellext is an AI startup that is revolutionizing the way contracts are negotiated, accelerating time to close, and improving deal terms. Intellext’s Intelligent Negotiation Platform™ eliminates the complexities of contract redlines and stakeholder collaboration and optimizes deal terms by applying machine learning during the negotiation process.